The Screen Door Slams: Bruce Springsteen's 25 Greatest Lyrics

by Julian Spivey

Bruce Springsteen is America’s poet laureate, plain and simple. I don’t believe there has ever been another songwriter that so appropriately and accurately captured American life in all of its emotions, nuances and spirit. Springsteen is so synonymous with America that he should be thought of right next to baseball and apple pie.

As I’m about to embark on my first Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert in Kansas City on Saturday I’ve decided to share my 25 favorite Springsteen lyrics. Note the difference between lyrics and songs. For instance, “We Take Care of Our Own” and “Hungry Heart” have found their way onto this particular list, when they are certainly not as great, in my opinion, or dear to me as say “Spirit in the Night”, “My Hometown”, “Backstreets” or “Blinded by the Light”, none of which landed lyrics on this list.

I’ve also decided not to rank this list. These lyrics are simply listed in chronological order.     
 
Growin’ Up: (1973)
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said "Sit down" I stood up.
Ooh-ooh growin' up

“Growin’ Up” off of Springsteen’s debut album “Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.” in 1973 is very Dylanesque, like much of that debut album. I’m not sure there’s a single chorus on the entire album as Springsteen spews out wondrous lyric after lyric as if he were a beat poet. One of the best lines off of the album is “I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said ‘Sit down’ I stood up”. It’s so deliciously smarmy and rebellious that it perfectly represents that time in your life where you’re transforming from a teenager to a man. Springsteen was “Growin’ Up” right in front of our eyes.   
 
It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City: (1973)
I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra
I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova
I could walk like Brando right into the sun
Then dance just like a Casanova

The narrator in “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” from Springsteen’s debut album is quite simply put the greatest fucking man to ever live. It’s apparent from these lines: “I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra/I was born blue and weathered but I burst just like a supernova/I could walk like Brando right into the sun/Then dance just like a Casanova”. You have to be a lyrical genius to compile something like this with images like ‘skin like leather’, ‘diamond-hard look of a cobra’ and ‘burst just like a supernova’ and then you mix that with the badassery of Marlon Brando and the suaveness of Casanova. This guy would no doubt be named People’s Sexiest Man Alive.   
 
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight): (1973)
But now you're sad, your mama's mad
And your papa says he knows that I don't have any money
Tell him this is last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance
Because a record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance

“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” from Springsteen’s second album, “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” is 100 percent pure adrenaline and rock ‘n’ roll angst. It’s another one in a long line of breakout-of-here themed songs that Springsteen’s made his calling card. “Rosalita” is also one of the many Springsteen songs that should really be made into a feature film. It’s a Romeo-and-Juliet type story of a badass, rebel rocker who’s fallen in love with this girl, but her parents disapprove of his wild and wooly ways. He’s going to stop at nothing to get her though and take her along with him to impending stardom. The glee in Springsteen’s voice as he screams “Tell him this is last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance/Because a record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance” is certain to put a smile on anyone’s face. The vocal on this track is a real tour de force and I’m not sure Springsteen takes a breath over the song’s seven-minute runtime, except of course during Clarence Clemons’ fantastic saxophone solo.
 
Fourth of the July, Asbury Park (Sandy): (1974)
Well the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
This boardwalk life for me is through
You ought to quit this scene too

“Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” is another one of those sprawling epics that Springsteen is so perfect at and that plays out like a movie in your mind. It’s also another breakout-of-this-life-to-find-a-better-way-of-living songs. “This boardwalk life for me is through/You ought to quit this scene too”. The narrator in this song is tired of all the switchblade lovers, pinball wizards and Jersey Shore pier life and wants to run off with his girl. An equally great line from this tune is: “Sandy the aurora's rising behind us/The pier lights our carnival life forever/Oh love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever”. The way Springsteen puts a verbal question mark on the word ‘forever’ to wrap up the song is fantastic in an almost Meat Loaf “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” way, except, of course, better.
 
Thunder Road (1975)
It's a town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win.

In my opinion, Springsteen’s “Thunder Road” is the greatest rock ‘n’ roll song that’s ever been written. Its entire message is effectively the heart and soul of rock music. It mixes somberness with hopefulness in a way that I don’t believe has ever been done better. The final lines, selected here, are the culmination of this epic pursuit of breaking free from the life that’s gotten you down to find another one out there down the road.
 
Thunder Road: (1975)
The screen door slams
Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays
Roy Orbison singing for the lonely
Hey that's me and I want you only

The final two lines of “Thunder Road” are the perfect ending to this song and a song with a perfect ending needs a perfectly equal beginning. The first six lines of “Thunder Road” paint a vivid picture that ultimately plays in your head like an old-timey movie, preferably one starring James Dean or Marlon Brando attempting to break free from a society that doesn’t understand them. “The screen door slams/Mary's dress waves/Like a vision she dances across the porch/As the radio plays” are the scene’s stage directions. The homage to Roy Orbison, who Springsteen really takes a lot of great qualities from, is spot on. 
 
Born to Run: (1975)
'Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

Much of Springsteen’s best music is about breaking free which describes the entire “Born to Run” album. “Tramps like us, baby we were born to run” is essentially just another way of saying “It's a town full of losers/And I'm pulling out of here to win” but in a more badass and forceful way than the somber hopefulness of “Thunder Road”.
 
Born to Run: (1975)
The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight
but there's no place left to hide

“Born to Run” is a song that is among Springsteen’s most poetic in its phrasing. “The highway’s jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive” is at the very top in its beautiful intensity. We’ve got to get out of this place or we’re never going to make it is right at its core, much like “Thunder Road”. It’s a completely different genre, but I believe that Hal Ketchum must have had it in mind when he wrote the similarly themed “They go ninety miles an hour to the city limits sign/Put the pedal to the metal 'fore they change their mind” in his early ‘90s hit “Small Town Saturday Night”.  
 
Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out: (1975)
When the change was made uptown
And the Big Man joined the band

These particular two lines from “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” have more meaning and a bigger meaning now since the death of the great E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons in late 2011. Clemons was an integral part of the E Street Band and his soulful and oftentimes plaintive (listen to the sax solo in “Jungleland” and tell me that’s not the saddest sound you’ve ever heard come out of an instrument) sax sounds anchored many of the group’s best works. “When the change was made uptown/And the Big Man joined the band” was essentially when the E Street Band was born. Springsteen has been saving “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” for the very last song at concerts on his current “Wrecking Ball” tour as a way of saying both thanks and goodbye to Clemons all at once. The Big Man is gone, but he most certainly won’t ever be forgotten.
 
Jungleland: (1975)
Outside the street's on fire in a real death waltz
Between flesh and what's fantasy and the poets down here
Don't write nothing at all, they just stand back and let it all be

Speaking of Springsteen being poetic, “Jungleland”, the final track off of the “Born to Run” album, is the Boss at his most epically poetic. “Jungleland” is a nearly 10-minute rock opera about love midst violence of gang wars. It’s basically Springsteen’s “West Side Story”, but more real. Instead of rival gangs having dance-offs and snapping their fingers there are actual shootouts and death. “Jungleland” really could and should be made into a movie adaptation on its own merit. How many songs are epic enough to say that about?
 
Badlands: (1978)
Poor man wanna be rich,
rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
till he rules everything

“Poor man wanna be rich/Rich man wanna be king/And a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything.” Rarely have truer words ever been sung in song. There really never is an end to what the human mind, heart, brain and soul can want and yearn for. Nothing’s ever going to be good enough for us. The way that Springsteen spits out these lyrics with vim and vigor really gets his point across, he’s going to get what he wants from these badlands. It also remains one of his finest vocal works and is, once again, him at his poetic best.
 
Racing in the Street: (1978)
Tonight, tonight the strip's just right
I wanna blow 'em off in my first heat
Summer's here and the time is right
For goin' racin' in the street

“Racing in the Street” from Springsteen’s 1978 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town” is another one of those songs so beautifully crafted and epic in its scope that it should have a movie based off of it. In fact, there is a movie that immediately comes to mind every time I hear this song … Monte Hellman’s 1971 road movie “Two-Lane Blacktop”, starring James Taylor and Warren Oates. I can’t help but wonder if Springsteen has this film in mind when he penned this song. “Racing in the Street” is, I know I’m sounding like a broken record, another “breaking free” song that turns into a rather unique love song, as well.
 
Hungry Heart: (1980)
Like a river that don't know where it's flowing
I took a wrong turn and I just kept going

“Hungry Heart” is Springsteen at his poppiest, which doesn’t happen all that often, but at its core is yet another song about breaking free of life’s constraints. The song is bouncy in its musicality and lyrics and includes one of Springsteen’s best lines: “Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowin’/I took a wrong turn and I just kept goin’.” I could see a Mark Twain novel starting with something that intoxicatingly beautiful.
 
The River: (1980)
Is a dream a lie if it don't come true
Or is it something worse

“The River” is Springsteen at his most beautifully mournful. There’s never anything to do in this worn down small town, but drive out to the river with your girl and knock her up. Then you’re forced to get married, find a shitty job and grow apart from each other over the years. All your dreams have faded to dust and blown away in the wind.  
 
Atlantic City: (1982)
Well now everything dies baby that's a fact
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back

These two lines: “Well now everything dies baby that's a fact/But maybe everything that dies someday comes back” from 1982’s “Atlantic City” are the most hopeful lines to come out of something so desperately tragic. We’re not going to make it in this life, baby, but we’ll be reincarnated into something better for our pain and sorrow in the next life is basically what I get from it. Again, this is Springsteen at his poetic best. 

Born in the U.S.A. (1984)
I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone

Many people confuse Springsteen’s 1984 hit “Born in the U.S.A.” as a patriotic anthem, including famously former President Ronald Reagan, because of its pro-America sounding chorus. However, if you listen to the lyrics it tells a much different story about an America that’s given up on its own people, including the real heroes of the country. This is never more apparent than in the line “I had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong/They're still there, he's all gone”. We engaged in a war that we had no way of winning or really no business fighting and treated our veterans like they didn’t exist upon their return. It’s a sentiment that we’d see again from The Boss 20 years later with “Devils & Dust”.
 
I’m On Fire: (1984)
Hey little girl is your daddy home
Did he go away and leave you all alone
I got a bad desire
I'm on fire

“I’m On Fire” is the type of brooding sexuality and sensuality that rock ‘n’ roll music was born out of. This really is one of the horniest rock songs ever recorded and anybody who’s ever longed for love or lust can understand it well. The whispered delivery of Springsteen on this track really sends a tingle up your spine and “Hey little girl is your daddy home/Did he go and leave you all alone/I got a bad desire/I’m on fire” is essentially an English language translation of Little Richard’s “Wop bop a loo bop a lop bam boom” in his lusty classic “Tutti Frutti”. Springsteen’s song is one of the sexiest rock lyrics ever written.  
 
Tougher Than the Rest: (1988)
Some girls they want a handsome Dan
or some good-lookin' Joe on their arm
Some girls like a sweet-talkin' Romeo
Well 'round here baby
I learned you get what you can get
So if you're rough enough for love
honey I'm tougher than the rest

For my money “Tougher Than the Rest” is one of the greatest love songs ever written because it’s one of the truest love songs that’s ever been written. Many love songs contain some form of bullshit amongst them. Some form of fairytale, make believe that doesn’t take place all that often in the real world. There’s not always going to be a soul mate waiting for you down the road, so stop waiting and hoping for it and, as the song says, “take what you can get”. In its own unique way the lines: “Some girls they want a handsome Dan or some good-lookin' Joe/Some girls like a sweet-talkin' Romeo/Well 'round here baby/I learned you get what you can get/So if you're rough enough for love/Honey I'm tougher than the rest” is one of the most romantic things I’ve ever heard. 
 
Streets of Philadelphia: (1994)
Ain't no angel gonna greet me
It's just you and I my friend
And my clothes don't fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
just to slip this skin

“Streets of Philadelphia” is one of the saddest songs that Springsteen has ever penned, which is not surprising seeing as it was written as the theme for Jonathan Demme’s 1993 movie “Philadelphia” about a man, played by Oscar-winner Tom Hanks, dying of AIDS. The song, which differed from Springsteen’s usual sound and implied a Philly soul sound, won Springsteen an Oscar. The “Ain’t no angel gonna greet me/It’s just you and I my friend”, and the tragic delivery of it, is one of the most devastatingly heartbreaking lyrics The Boss or anybody for that matter has ever come up with. 
 
The Ghost of Tom Joad: (1995)
The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light
Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

“The Ghost of Tom Joad”, a folksy number from Springsteen’s mid-‘90s album of the same name, is one of the finest folk or Americana songs ever written and recorded. John Steinbeck’s Depression era novel “The Grapes of Wrath” about dustbowl Okies trekking to California to find work and a new life is one that should be considered the “Great American Novel”. This song is based off of the main character, Tom Joad, in Steinbeck’s novel who recites the classic “I’ll be there” speech that is one of the greatest literary speeches of all time and one that Henry Fonda turned into one of the greatest film speeches of all time in John Ford’s 1940 film adaptation. Springsteen incorporates the words and legacy of Tom Joad into modern times when people are still struggling to be free. Hopefully the spirit of Tom Joad will fight the good fight as long as there are people who struggle to be free.
 
Devils & Dust: (2005)
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a dangerous thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust

“Devils & Dust” is one of those songs that probably most accurately describes what kind of living Hell war really is.  “And I'm just trying to survive/What if what you do to survive/Kills the things you love/Fear's a dangerous thing/It can turn your heart black you can trust/It'll take your God filled soul/

Fill it with devils and dust” That’s one of the scariest things I’ve ever heard. War can make a man do things that he’s not proud of, that he’d never do under even the worst of circumstances back home. It’ll take everything you’ve ever known to be true in life and tear it up and spit it back out at you. Springsteen released this song right in the midst of the war in Iraq, which never should’ve taken place. One of the coolest performances I’ve ever seen in my life was of Springsteen doing an acoustic version of this song at that year’s Grammy Awards. Upon finishing the song Springsteen simply said ‘Bring ‘em home’ and turned and walked off the stage to uproarious and righteous applause. That’s true rock & roll. 
  
Long Walk Home: (2007)
My father said "Son, we're lucky in this town
It's a beautiful place to be born
It just wraps its arms around you
Nobody crowds you, nobody goes it alone.
That flag flying over the courthouse
Means certain things are set in stone
Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't."

“Long Walk Home” is my favorite song off of Springsteen’s 2007 album “Magic” and is very likely the best song Springsteen has written since 1995’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad”. The song is about a man disillusioned with what his world has become and longs for the old days when things were purer and better. “That flag flying over the courthouse/Means certain things are set in stone/Who we are, what we'll do and what we won't." Things used to be that way, but they’ve been corrupted over the years. We can get that back if we try really hard, but it’s gonna be a long walk home. “Long Walk Home” is one of Springsteen’s most tragic vocals and if you really believe it, like I do, this song will leave you teary-eyed when he gets to these lines.   
 
Magic: (2007)
Trust none of what you hear
And less of what you see
This is what will be, this is what will be

Springsteen’s 2007 album “Magic” was one of his most, if not his most, politically charged albums and frankly I couldn’t get enough of that. It was evident based on the lyrics in many of the songs that Springsteen was no fan of President George W. Bush. Bush had given the American public plenty of reasons not to trust him, especially when it came to the war in Iraq. The line “Trust none of what you hear/And less of what you see/This is what will be” from the album’s title track is a pretty good representation of the Bush administration.
 
Wrecking Ball: (2012)
Bring on your wrecking ball
Bring on your wrecking ball
C’mon and take your best shot
Let me see what you got
Bring on your wrecking ball

“Wrecking Ball” is a song that Springsteen wrote as an homage and goodbye to Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands of New Jersey, which basically doubled as his home stadium for concerts. However, the song doubles as a battle cry of not giving up under the roughest circumstances. The chorus of “Wrecking Ball” is really a great mentality for Americans to take as we head into the future. “C’mon and take your best shot/Let me see what you got”, but we’ll never back down.
 
We Take Care of Our Own: (2012)
Wherever this flag’s flown
We take care of our own

Unlike most Springsteen songs, “We Take Care of Our Own”, the first single off of Springsteen’s most recent album “Wrecking Ball”, is one that wasn’t particularly attractive to my ear the first time I heard it or even really the first few times I heard it. It wasn’t really until the song was put into the context of the 2012 Presidential election that I really understood the importance of the lines: “Wherever this flag’s flown/We take care of our own.” It’s a line that seems almost too obvious to work, but it’s really not all that obvious. America has shown time and time again in the last few years that it really doesn’t always take care of its own. There’s a line in this song about former President George W. Bush’s poor effort to help Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans and in the context of this song during this year’s election I got to realizing that Republican candidate Mitt Romney wouldn’t take care of his own if elected President. Refusing to let those who love each other to marry and treating minorities and women like second class citizens doesn’t qualify as taking care of one’s own. Hearing this song play after President Barack Obama’s re-election speech really helped to put it into perspective. Bruce Springsteen often catches flack for being political, but he’s proven he’s often at his best when doing so.